E10

[Neil-yaj396]

My old pre E10 fueling regime was 2 tanks of 95 after each tank of 99 (super) all with a good glug of Millers VSPe added. I hadn't used E10 in the Beta since it's introduction.

When getting the Coupe ready for a trip to see my son in St. Neots and attend the Abarth Owners Italian car day which was held at the rugby club there on Sunday, I thought that topping up from 3 1/4 full to full might mean no refueling for the round trip. I didn't think that a 1/4 tank of E10 could do any harm, especially since renewing all my fuel lines, so stuck in less than 20 litres.

The car was running so well on the A1, as it generally has since the carb refurb, that I skipped my planned stop at Grantham or Colsterworth. As I passed Wittering the car had a very big 'hicup' as sometimes it did in the bad old days. It ran on but didn't seem very happy and had a smaller hicup at the A14 junction but I got to the show.

Yesterday I added half a tank of Esso 99 E5 and normal service was immediately resumed, including for the ride back up the A1 today.

I'm now not as skeptical about fuel stories. I became a bit of a skeptic when my Frogeye happily ran on unleaded for 10 years despite dire warnings of the valve seats being destroyed in less than 1000 miles.

The worry is that they are only going to keep putting more ethanol in fuel rather than less...